Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s announcement that he will release 250,000 emails from his time as chief executive of the Sunshine State has only intensified speculation he is running for the White House in 2016.
“One of the things I am going to do as I go through this process is release all of my emails and write an e-book, which has been kind of fun to go back and to think about this, and remind myself that if you run with big ideas and then you’re true to those ideas, and get a chance to serve and implement them and do it with passion and conviction, you can move the needle,” Bush told WPLG, the ABC affiliate in Miami. “And that’s what we need right now in America.”
Bush has long been rumored as a possible 2016 candidate, given his perhaps-unparalleled connections to donors and big players in the Republican Party.
Such a data dump is typical of a presidential candidate hoping to trumpet a commitment to transparency.
In a potential White House run, Bush would certainly carry favor with the Establishment wing of the Republican Party. But he would have to win over Tea Party-aligned voters who have questioned his conservative credentials.
When asked about the content of the emails, Bush replied, “There’s some funny ones, there’s some sad ones, there’s some serious ones.”
